[Mark W]

Hello MG,

Yours is a delightful post that ponders the role of etudes. I quite agree that Chopin's Etudes could have a different title, and hardly influence at all how the listener perceives them. I do find, myself, appreciating the "etudeness", the pianistic regularity, of Chopin's Etudes.

Hannon's piano exercises might be regarded differently by the listener. Only a piano teacher might enjoy them; but I suspect she probably hates hearing them every lesson ;-)

So, these Parallel Interval pieces could perhaps be named something differently; but I think something would be lost there. Although I want, like most composers, for the performer and listener to "feel" the music, I do also intend for the parallel interval property of each piece to be perceived in and of itself, in addition to whatever feeling is expressed with the parallel interval gadgetry being the vehicle of its delivery. Said another way, I do intend for there to be an intellectual listening element in the music. I hope that the listener will follow the progression through the pieces of parallel seconds, then parallel thirds, etc. and take some combination of intellectual and aesthetic delight in that.

However, I also have no problem with the listener just getting into the feeling of the music, without any regard to the parallel interval gadgetry. If the listener were to focus on only one or the other, I'd much prefer the listener to get into the feeling of the music.

The above is all presumptuous, though, that there would be many listeners who would get into the feeling of the music. I honestly have hardly a clue whether any but a few friends would get into these pieces as much as I got into them. It was the closest parallel between composing and programming that I had ever explored.

Cheers
-- Mark